Over the last few months I've been battling algae in my saltwater aquarium.
I'm not talking about good types of decorative algae, I'm talking about nuisance algae and diatoms.
I am now winning the battle, finally, after months of discipline and testing.
One major thing I learned is that good water quality equals less algae.
What do I mean by that? Curbing nuisance algae in an aquarium has everything to do with water quality.
I quickly found that trying to get rid of the undesirable algae and diatoms in my aquarium was basically a process of trying to get my water quality in check.
I had to figure out ways to prevent nitrate spikes and to remove nitrate from the aquarium completely.
I also had to learn about different water parameters and continually test and condition the water to keep those parameters in check.
Once I got the key water parameters under control, in combination with a few other things, the nuisance algae problems started to disappear.
What are the water parameters I focused on improving? Nitrates When I keep the nitrate levels under 10 ppm, the algae disappears very quickly in the aquarium.
I find that sometimes I can get annoying algae growth even with nitrate levels of just 10-20 ppm.
If you are trying to get rid of algae, focus on bringing down nitrate levels.
Test the water every day, do water changes every week, and make sure there isn't a buildup of waste and detritus anywhere in your aquarium or filtration systems.
All these things will help reduce the amount of nitrates in the water.
You need to get the waste out the aquarium.
Live plants can also help control algae because they will consume nitrates that would otherwise feed the bad aquarium algae.
Phosphates I also had a problem with high phosphate and silicate levels in my aquarium for a while.
This contributed to my algae problems.
I used to use tap water to do water changes, which is a bad idea.
To get my phosphate levels in check I took two very important steps.
I started using an RO-DI water purification system to purify water for all my water changes.
In addition to using purified water, I also purchased a hang-on-tank phosphate reactor with a power head and used RowaPhos to pull phosphates and silicates out of the water.
After using purified water for a few months during water changes and after using RowaPhos for about 3 months, I noticed a big drop in diatoms and nuisance algae.
These efforts took a while and required some patience, but it really paid off.
The Results I now only need to scrape the glass on my aquarium once per week, and that's even pushing it sometimes.
I also have almost no brown diatoms growing in the aquarium anymore.
From all my testing, I'm positive that it was mostly due to the nitrate and phosphate reduction alone, and my improved focus on those two things.
If you are battling with nuisance algae yourself, those would be the two things that I would recommend to focus on.